Matthews shakes off the rust in grounding Eagles

~Philadelphia — If there was any doubt that the Green Bay Packers did the right thing holding linebacker Clay Matthews out of the final four weeks of training camp, it was blown to smithereens on Lincoln Financial Field.

Matthews looked more than recovered from a hamstring injury he suffered in the team’s intrasquad scrimmage Aug. 7, turning a performance worthy of a player far less rusty than the second-year linebacker.

All Matthews did was lead the team in tackles with seven, sacks with two and force a fumble, all in a 27-20 victory on the road.

About the only thing he was kicking himself for was a dropped interception that he had a chance to return a long way, possibly for a touchdown.

“No, not even close,” Matthews said when asked if this was the best game of his career. “Statistics don’t mean anything. Some of the best games I’ve had I’ve had zero sacks or zero tackles. I thought I did all right statistically speaking, but there’s a lot to improve on.

“What, we’re talking four weeks off? There’s a lot of rust I need to shake off. It was a good way to start the season, let’s just leave it at that.”

Matthews sat out most of training camp last year with the same hamstring pull and the Packers are probably wondering if it might be a good idea to make him miss camp every year. Perhaps the most impressive part of Matthews’ performance was the number of snaps he was able to play, especially considering the second half turned into “Get Michael Vick.”